Magna Steyr’s MILA Plus Sports Car Concept Is a Hybridized Showcase

Magna Steyr has screwed together some of our favorite vehicles—shout out to the Mercedes G-wagen—and in the leadup to the Geneva motor show, the contract manufacturer has unveiled its latest concept car intended to highlight its services.

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The yellow Lotus Evora–ish two-door you see here is the MILA Plus, the eighth such example of the Magna Innovative Lightweight Auto concepts designed by the mega Austrian parts supplier. While it looks like an attractive, off-the-rack sports car any number of automakers could slap their badges on (imagine it as a future Toyota MR2 or Mitsubishi 3000GT), the MILA Plus is really a traveling salesman’s briefcase meant only to display what Magna Steyr can do if one merely asks.

Underneath the plastic body panels resides an aluminum frame constructed with what Magna calls “cold mechanical joining,” in which the metal is contact-welded and bonded without the high temperatures required in traditional spot welding. It’s a supposedly more cost-effective process the company used on the Mercedes SLS AMG and the Aston Martin Rapide.

The mid-engine plug-in-hybrid powertrain, in BMW i8 fashion, combines two electric motors and a three-cylinder gas powerplant to deliver all-wheel drive. Magna says the unspecified battery delivers 47 miles of electric range, and together with the gas engine, the MILA Plus whips up 268 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque, good enough for a zero-to-62-mph time of 4.9 seconds. In electric mode, Magna quotes a zero-to-50-mph time of 3.6 seconds, which may suggest the car’s EV top speed before the gas engine kicks on.